Future of both Labour and Tories in Mahmood's hands

Both Labour and the Tories need Shabana Mahmood to succeed, yet many in both parties refuse to accept that she holds their future in her hands.

- JOHN RENTOUL

The home secretary has dominated the news this week, with a high-profile Sunday TV interview with Laura Kuenssberg and two major policy announcements in parliament on Monday and Thursday, and she shows no sign of slowing down.

In an interview with The Times yesterday, she continued to attack all sides - impatient, confident and uncompromising. One of her targets was soft: Cat Eccles, the rebel Labour MP who accused her of peddling myths about asylum to “appease the electorate”. Oops.

Mahmood said: “Appeasing voters is a misrepresentation ... In every constituency, there will be a coalition of people that can broadly agree on most things, and it’s your job as a parliamentarian to reflect those views.”

She added that voters see a system that is broken: “What I don’t think anyone should do is gaslight them and pretend that that’s just not what’s happening, because it is.”

Most Labour MPs agree and welcome such strong leadership. Yet the real surprise was the praise from Conservatives and Reform politicians. Nigel Farage said she “sounds like a Reform supporter” and invited her to join his party.